


Moonflower

by mewrose



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Fanfiction of Fanfiction, M/M, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-19
Updated: 2021-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-28 11:41:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30139026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mewrose/pseuds/mewrose
Summary: Moonflower: Dreaming of love.After soulmates meet each other, they occasionally have vague dreams of their future life together. Akechi and Akira both dream of marigolds.(A ‘marigolds’ soulmate AU)
Relationships: Akechi Goro/Amamiya Ren, Akechi Goro/Kurusu Akira, Akechi Goro/Persona 5 Protagonist
Comments: 4
Kudos: 99
Collections: Inspired by marigolds





	Moonflower

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [marigolds](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21681676) by [colbub](https://archiveofourown.org/users/colbub/pseuds/colbub). 



> This is an AU of the fanfiction 'marigolds' by colbub. It refers to events and characterizations in that fic, so it's best to read that first.

Akechi had always doubted that soulmates even existed. Sure, everyone talked about them, and the dreams that signaled who you were apparently a perfect match for. There were even studies on it, exploring things like what percentage of the population had such dreams, how likely one was to meet their soulmate depending on certain factors of their life, and trying to determine the mechanics of how they worked as precisely as possible. It all sounded like so much pseudoscience and wishful thinking to Akechi. And his views on the subject certainly had nothing to do with the fact that he had never had such dreams himself.

He still had not had any dreams worth remembering by the time he died, shot through the heart by a cognition of himself.

There was no dreaming in the Sea of Souls, just an endless talk with a boy who’d given up everything to save everything. Their conversation managed to touch on every aspect of their lives except for soulmates. Akechi appreciated that his friend never asked, so in return he refrained from prying as well.

It was several months into his second chance before he had his first dream that felt different from all the rest. 

It was brief, lasting only a moment or two. In it, he was standing on a small balcony, filled to bursting with an assortment of potted flowers. He was in the middle of watering them, he thinks as a favor for someone. There was a wide variety of flowers, colored in shades of pink, blue and purple, and one in bright yellow off to the side.

When he blinked awake, he noted that this particular dream felt far more realistic than the usual. And as he went about his day, he found that the dream didn’t fade from his memory as dreams usually did, but stayed so clear that he could still picture the exact shape and color of every blossom.

He wondered if Akira would be able to name the flowers, if he described them. Maybe one day he would ask.

* * *

Akira wondered if soulmate dreams could be the same dream over and over. Every once in a while he kept having the same dream, the one where he watered a collection of flowers, then turned to see a cat. It did feel real in a way that none of his other dreams did, which soulmate dreams were said to do. But weren’t those dreams supposed to be a bunch of little moments of your life together, not the same scene on repeat?

After maybe the fourth time he had the same dream, he decided to do a little research. The library had plenty of books on the subject, and the internet was a wealth of information as always. Some of it was even useful, instead of speculation and alarmist nonsense. 

The main points were: it wasn’t clear if not everyone had a soulmate, or if some people just never met their soulmate. Regardless, after the first time someone meets their soulmate, they start to have occasional dreams of their life together. (What counted as “meeting” was still up to debate; did you have to get their name, simply speak to them, or was just seeing them enough?) The dreams were vague, only showing flashes of a life affected by the soulmate, and never the person themself. The dreams would continue until the pair got together, after which there would be one final dream before they ceased.

Nothing Akira read said anything about having the same dream repeat. He read plenty about dream interpretation, on people who used tiny, obscure details of their dreams to figure out who their soulmate was after only one dream, and on other people who never figured it out until they saw something blatantly obvious like the nameplate of a door with their soulmate’s name on it. But all Akira had to work with was some flowers and a cat. He’d try to keep an eye out for that cat, but that’s all he could do besides wait for a different dream.

He didn’t see the cat in the waking word until he’d been in Tokyo for a few days, and at that point he was rather distracted by suddenly finding himself involved in some alternate world with magic powers and an abusive teacher. It isn’t until he finally had a different dream, one involving him and his new friend lounging around playing video games some time in the future, that he remembered the significance of that particular cat.

On his way to school the morning after the new dream, he reviewed what he knew about soulmate dreams again. Since the soulmate never appeared in the dreams themselves, that meant Ryuji wasn't his soulmate. (Also, neither was Morgana, but he didn’t think that was possible anyway.) There were a handful of other names mentioned in the dream, so most likely none of them were his soulmate, either. Or maybe one of them was? He did recall reading the story of someone dreaming of their soulmate’s written name, so he carefully jotted those names down, just in case.

Based on the clues he had, it seemed likely that in the future he still lived in Tokyo, and would be studying Environmental Science, and Morgana stayed with him. But those were all clues about _himself,_ nothing about his soulmate. No matter how much he combed through the dreams, he couldn’t tease out any more information. 

So he was back to waiting for more dreams. At least now he was reasonably certain there _would_ be more.

Over the next few months he had more of those dreams. After a while, he realized that for some reason, he seemed to have them every time he met someone who would gain a Persona and become a Phantom Thief. Was that a clue in and of itself? Would his soulmate eventually become a Phantom Thief? But then again, every time he dreamt of someone, that showed they were not the one. Perhaps if he met someone and had a dream without them, that could tell him who it is. He was starting to have his suspicions about Akechi, and considering that after he’d met Akechi he didn’t see him in a dream, then maybe…

Then there came one dream of a graveyard in winter, of visiting a tombstone bearing a familiar name. He wrenched himself awake in the middle of that one, then lay staring at the dusty dark of his room as his mind churned over what this could mean.

If this dream was accurate, then Goro Akechi would die in 2016. That could mean either that Akechi could not be his soulmate because he was going to die and his dreams were pointing at someone else, or Akechi _was_ his soulmate but was going to die anyway. The thought of either option made a tight, heavy feeling fill his chest, and he realized that more than anything else, he _wanted_ Akechi to be his soulmate. Could you dream of a soulmate that you never got to spend your life with?

The next morning he started researching soulmate dreams again with desperate fervor. He found no conclusive evidence whether you could have dreams that depict a time after your soulmate has passed away. But while combing through every article he could find that mentioned soulmate dreams in relation to death, he did come across one hopeful tidbit. It was a discussion of whether these dreams were immutable prophecies, destined to come true exactly as seen, or if they were one possible future that could be changed. It was a bit long-winded, but what it boiled down to was that while the vast majority of dreams had reportedly come true, there were rare cases where someone dreamed of something terrible that they managed to avert due to the forewarning. 

This could be his chance. He had until the end of the year to figure out whether Akechi was his soulmate, what was threatening him, and save his life. This was his most important mission, and he _could not_ fail.

* * *

Akira made a dedicated effort to learn as much as he could about Akechi, trying to pick up any little hints that might connect to any of his dreams. As such, he watched all of Akechi’s interviews, pouring over them and noting anything that might be genuine information.

He quickly discovered that Akechi rarely talked about soulmate dreams on TV. Sure, Akechi was _asked_ about dreams often enough, but he usually gave some polite non-answer, and it was considered rude to pry about soulmates so they left it at that.

There was only one time where he said anything of substance, in one of his earlier interviews. It had been one of the usual questions, along the lines of “Have you ever dreamt of your soulmate?” Akechi answered with a fairly typical “I do have dreams of course, and sometimes I even remember them. However, it’s rather hard to say if any of my dreams relate to a potential soulmate, or are just normal dreams.”

Any other time that would be the end of it, but this time the interviewer pressed, “Well, can you give us an example of one that could go either way?”

And for once, Akechi actually hummed thoughtfully before apparently deciding to answer. “Well, there was one recently that seemed quite realistic, though it only lasted for the span of a breath or two. I was in the middle of eating what appeared to be a homemade bento, and in that exact moment I was chewing on a dorayaki.” He smiled and added, “So it’s impossible to tell if there was any special significance to the dream, or if I was just hungry at the time.”

The audience laughed at that, but Akira focused on one particular detail. Out of all the things Akechi could have been eating, he’d dreamed of a dorayaki, the first thing that Akira had ever cooked for him. It could mean nothing, just be a simple coincidence. Or it could mean exactly what Akira hoped it would. Soulmate dreams were vague and confusing that way.

He wondered if he should pack a lunch for Akechi sometime and include a dorayaki. Then again, he was sure every girl who had ever had a crush on the detective would have the same idea. No doubt he’d end up getting so many offers of bentos at school that he’d never be able to eat them all. If Akira tried to do the same, he’d just get lost in the shuffle. Best to find some other way to get Akechi’s attention that would stand out a bit more.

* * *

Shortly after Haru fully awakened to her Persona, Ann decided that to welcome her to the team they needed to have a girls night out, and bullied Makoto and Futaba into going along with it. Ryuji immediately decided that if all the girls were gonna hang out, then the guys should too! He pestered Akira into letting them hang at his place, Akira dragged Akechi along, and Yusuke was content to go anywhere as long as they’d feed him. Morgana wasn’t allowed with the girls and lamented the fact that he was missing a chance to hang out with Lady Ann, then opted to go for a walk instead.

As so it was that the four guys ended up spending an evening sitting around Akira’s attic, eating snacks and playing video games. After Akechi beat Ryuji at a retro Featherman fighting game for the 5th time in a row, the younger boy threw down his controller and said, “Man, enough of this! If we’re having a guy’s night, we should talk about guy stuff!”

Akechi had a faintly smug look on his face as he put down his own controller, but apparently decided to allow the topic change because he asked, “And what would you consider to be ‘guy stuff’?”

“Welllll...” Ryuji replied, drawing the word out long enough that it became clear he hadn’t yet thought that far. Eventually he said, “Well, what kind of girls do you all like?” Then immediately he perked up and said, “Oh, or even better, have you ever dreamed of your soulmate?”

Akira could have hugged Ryuji for bringing up the topic, and in a completely natural way that Akechi would have no reason to be suspicious about. Finally, he might get a chance at some answers. Akira glanced at Akechi to see what he thought and noticed the detective’s face go carefully neutral in the way it did when he was faced with interview questions he was about to evade. But there was no way that Akira would let this opportunity slip. So before Akechi could say anything, Akira jumped in with, “Well Ryuji, you asked, so you should answer first. Have _you_ had any soulmate dreams?”

Ryuji just shrugged and said, “Nah, not me.” Then he tilted his head thoughtfully, and added, “Or at least, I don’t think so. Unless that dream of finally winning the Big Bang Challenge was one, it felt pretty real. I woke up with a stomach ache and everything.”

Akira had never heard of soulmate dreams causing any physical changes, like stomach aches. But he just smiled fondly at his friend and said, “You never know. Guess you have to wait and see if you have any more dreams.” Then he turned to Yusuke and asked, “How about you Yuskue, ever had a soulmate dream?”

The artist paused in munching on his Jagariko for a moment to hum, then said, “Dreams are a fascinating subject, are they not? They offer a compellingly unfiltered view at the inner workings of the psyche. A number of artists have attempted to depict them through a variety of mediums, but it appears it’s quite the challenge to convey the precise way in which they juxtapose surreality with mundanity…” From there he spent several minutes rambling about the beauty of dreams and some depictions of them in various art forms. Akira found himself trading glances with Akechi, their expressions both exasperated and fond because this was very much like Yusuke. But the time he wound down, he still hadn’t answered the question, but Akira decided that repeating the query would just set Yusuke off again so he decided to leave it be.

He briefly debated asking Akechi next, but decided the detective would be more likely to answer if everyone else had gone first. So he said, “I’m pretty sure I’ve had some soulmate dreams. I’ve had several that feel far more real than any others, anyway.”

Ryuji’s eyes lit up with interest and he leaned forward. “Yeah? Have you found any clues about your soulmate? Or have you figured out who she is yet?”

“Hey, there’s no guaranteeing my soulmate’s a girl,” Akira chided. He tried to sneak a look at Akechi out of the corner of his eye to see how he reacted to that statement, but he couldn’t get a good look at his expression.

Ryuji blinked, then tilted his head, looking faintly puzzled. “Oh, uh, I guess. Why, do you think your soulmate’s a guy or something?”

Shrugging, Akira answered, “I haven’t figured out anything for sure yet. The only thing I _do_ know is who it _isn’t_ , because I’ve dreamt of a number of my friends already.”

That perked Ryuji up again. “For real? Who’ve you dreamed about?”

Akira just shook his head. “Nah, I’m not saying. I’d rather keep to myself about who I’ve seen.”

“Aw, c’mon man!” Ryuji whined. “Can you just tell me if you’ve seen me? Am I doing anything cool in the future?”

Oh, so he just wanted a glimpse of his future, then? Well, Akira really didn’t want to tell his friend that their dream conversation had been about Ryuji lamenting he didn’t have any direction in his life, so he just said, “OK, yes, I did see you. You were the same as ever.” And he would absolutely not say anyone else, because if he said if he’d seen Yusuke, then Akechi might ask about himself.

He did probably have to reveal a little more before he could expect Akechi to answer, so he said, “It was weird, though; after the first dream, I had the same one over and over before I started having different ones.”

Unexpectedly, that seemed to get Akechi’s attention. He sat up slightly straighter and said, “Is that so? I don’t believe I’ve ever heard of a dream repeating before, soulmate or otherwise. Was it the exact same, or were there any variations? How many times did you have this dream?”

Akira was surprised at the questions, but if they got Akechi interested in the topic, he’d be happy to answer. “They were the exact same, as far as I can tell. And I’m not sure exactly how many times I had it, but it was more than five.” He didn’t want to share the contents of the dream yet, or how long he kept having that dream. So before Akechi could ask any more questions, he asked, “So, how about you? Have you had any soulmate dreams?”

Rather than answer right away, Akechi sat back a bit. There was a pause, long enough for Akira to wonder if the other boy would answer at all. Finally Akechi said, “It is quite possible that I have, though I can’t be certain. I have had a number of dreams in which I’m performing fairly mundane activities. They are fairly rare for me, spaced months apart and only last a moment or two each.”

If he’d had multiple dreams months apart, then he’d have to have been having them for probably half a year at the absolute minimum, and the implication was that he’d had them much longer. Taking that as a good sign, Akira pressed, “What have they been like?”

Again, Akechi didn’t answer right away. Ryuji and even Yusuke were looking interested now, and after glancing around at their expectant expressions, Akechi seemed to relent and said, “Well, in the most recent one I was doing some maintenance on a pair of bicycles.”

Ryuji grinned at that. “Hey, does that mean you and your soulmate will go biking together?”

Akira thought back to the time he and Akechi biked through the park. He certainly wouldn’t mind doing that again.

“Well, it’s certainly possible,” Akechi agreed. “And if these _are_ soulmate dreams, then it seems likely that either my soulmate or myself will keep a cat, because I once dreamed of buying cat food. It appeared to be a fairly high-end brand too.”

Akira was glad Morgana was not in the room right now.

“It appears you’ve had a number of useful clues,” Yusuke chimed in. “I have no doubt that with your skill at deductive reasoning, you’ll have little trouble discerning who your soulmate is.”

“Well, I don’t know about that,” Akechi replied dismissively. “Not all the dreams have any useful information. The first one was simply me standing on a tiny balcony, watering an assortment of potted flowers.”

Akira’s breath caught. That was startlingly similar to the dream that he’d had over and over. He swallowed, managed to make himself breathe again, then asked, “Flowers, huh? Any idea which ones?”

Akechi raised an eyebrow at the question, but he was smiling as he answered, “You would ask that. Well, I don’t know any of the names, but I believe I can recall what they look like.”

“Well, let’s see if we can identify them, then.” Akira promptly got up and headed over to his shelf to rummage through his books.

“Hey, what’s it matter what kind of flowers they are?” Ryuji called after him.

Pulling out a book on florology, Akira answered, “Because a lot of flowers and plants have meanings to them. Maybe there’s a message in the flowers.” Which is true enough, but mostly he just wanted to know if the flowers Akechi had seen were the same ones in his own dream.

As he headed back to the table they were all sitting around, Akira asked, “Can you tell me a little about the flowers, so we can start to narrow down which ones they were?”

Akechi crossed his arms and stared at nothing in particular for a moment, then said, “As I recall, they were mostly in shades of blue, purple and pink. Oh, but there was a yellow one off to one side.”

Akira fought to keep a grin off his face at the information, and managed to restrain it to a tight smile. As he sat down he started flipping through the book, slowing when he was in the section of flowers that could be yellow. “Let’s start with that one. Tell me if any of these look like the one you remember.” He turned the book to face Akechi and flipped the pages slowly, giving the detective plenty of time to look over each flower.

Just as he suspected, a couple pages in Akechi squinted and pointed to a certain flower, one that had a tight cluster of ruffled petals, which were orange edged with yellow. “That one seems similar, except it was solid yellow.”

“Marigolds,” Akira identified without needing to read from the book. “There’s a number of varieties of them, and they can come in several shades of red, yellow, orange, or a mix. They also have a number of meanings, according to different cultures. Sometimes they’re said to represent the sun, and are associated with joy and optimism. Other times they’re associated with honoring the dead, and represent remembrance and grief. In Mexico they’re a common sight during the holiday the Day of the Dead, which is an annual celebration honoring departed family members. Due to the golden color and round shape, they can be associated with coins, and therefore wealth and prosperity.”

Yusuke leaned clower to get a better look at the flowers, and murmured, “How fascinating. I was unaware that there could be such deep and complex meanings associated with flowers.” He looked sharply up at Akira and implored, “Please, tell me more! I feel poised on the cusp of a veritable fountain of inspiration!”

Well, he was glad Yusuke was interested, at least. Not surprisingly, Ryuji was less enthusiastic, but he didn’t complain while the rest of them gathered around the book. As they continued to flip through the pages, identifying the flowers in Akechi’s dream and discussing possible meanings, Ryuji went back to playing video games.

Eventually Ryuji and Yusuke had to head home. But when Akechi tried to leave with them, Akira briefly grabbed onto the edge of his sleeve and tried to convey ‘Wait a minute, I want to talk to you’ with his eyes. Akechi just gave him a confused look, so he wasn’t sure how well the message got across. But then again, Akechi didn’t leave with the others, so at least it worked.

Once the two of them were alone, Akechi asked, “Did you need something?”

“Um, yeah.” Suddenly Akira struggled to find the words to convey what he wanted to say. “About that first dream of yours, with the flowers. The first dream I had, the one that repeated over and over, was actually very similar, with the exact same flowers. Except in my dream, I knew the names of all the flowers even without looking them up later, and I knew what was in the pots that hadn’t sprouted yet. One of them was going to hold sunflowers.” He paused, debated whether to add it, then finally said, “And then after I’d watered them all, I turned and saw Morgana, though I’d started having the dream long before I came to Tokyo. He’d been eating well and got slightly fat. ”

Akechi huffed an amused breath at the description of the cat, but he was studying Akira with a somewhat calculating look. Finally he said, “If the two of us appear to have dreamt of the same scene, then are you insinuating…” he faltered there, and didn’t seem likely to finish the thought.

He didn’t need to, because Akira _was_ in fact insinuating what he was thinking. But since Akechi seemed to be hesitating to say the word ‘soulmates,’ he answered, “Only one way to find out.” He smiled and proposed, “Will you go on a date with me?”

Akechi stayed silent, his expression not changing at first. But he also wasn’t immediately rejecting the idea, so Akira gave him as much time as he needed, and just watched and waited for his friend to think the offer over. He was watching closely enough that he noticed tiny shifts in Akechi’s expression, little twitches of his eyes and slight wrinkles in his brow that showed he seemed to be thinking it over seriously. He also seemed rather torn over whatever he was considering. 

Finally Akechi met Akira’s eyes and said, “I want to make absolutely certain that you’re aware: getting too close to me may be dangerous right now. Shido has already shown he won’t hesitate to target anyone he feels could be used to manipulate me, and I wouldn’t wish any harm to come to you.”

It was a warning, and one he clearly meant in earnest, but it was not a refusal. So Akira grinned and answered, “I’m willing to take my chances. We’re already trying to keep our identities hidden, what’s one more bit of information to keep under wraps?”

Akechi studied him for a long moment more. Then finally his expression softened slightly and he nodded. “Very well. Let us give it a try.”

Akira was ready to drag him out on a date right that moment, but it was late enough that the trains would stop running before they could get anywhere and back. But the following day, Akira took Akechi out to go play darts, then to have dinner, and finished the night at the jazz club.

When he went to bed that night, he was almost jittery with anticipation, and it took him longer than usual to fall asleep.

* * *

That night he dreamed of standing at the beach, very near the spot they had talked about the Black Mask and what he had done. He was watching the sun setting over the water, his hand clasped with another who stood beside him. His thumb ran lightly over his partner’s fingers, gliding over the smooth band of a ring. He started to turn, to make some comment to the person beside him, but just as he started to catch sight of the figure in his peripheral vision-

In separate bedrooms halfway across Tokyo, two boys blinked awake in unison.

When Akira called Akechi later that morning, it turned out they had had the exact same dream at the exact same time. That was the way of the final soulmate dream; one shared experience to confirm the bond. From now on there would be no more cryptic visions, just a chance to make all those future memories they’d seen.

* * *

While Akira was overjoyed to find the one he’d been pining over for so long had literally been the man of his dreams, there was still one problem: that dream of the graveyard with Akechi’s tombstone and all that it implied. But he’d already spent so many nights with Chihaya proving that fate could be changed. If there was anyone who’s fate deserved to be averted, it was Akechi. And Akira was determined to do whatever it took to save his soulmate.


End file.
